I felt a shiver run along my spine and I looked down into the dimness below.
” We’re at the top of the house,” said Gabriel. ” It was certain death to leap over on to the flagstones below. The only two suicides in our history … and both chose the same method.”
” Come along in,” I said. ” I’m tired.”
But when we entered the room I felt my fear returning Those moments on the balcony had done that, those chance words of Gabriel’s. I was certainly strung up, which was unusual for me. But all would be well to-morrow, I promised myself.
During the next two days I explored the house and the surrounding country. I was fascinated—at times enchanted, at times repelled. I enjoyed being in the house during the day-time, and I was continually losing my way in it; but when dusk fell—I am ashamed to admit—the habit of looking furtively over my shoulder when I was. alone persisted.
I had never stayed in such a large or ancient house; when one was alone the present seemed to merge into the past; it was because so much of the furniture had been in the house for centuries and one could not get away from the idea that this was exactly how it had looked hundreds of years ago, when other footsteps, other voices had been heard, other figures had made those long shadows on the walls.
It was absurd to be influenced by such fancies when the people in the house were normal enough; I had them all clearly docketed in my mind within those first days: Sir Matthew, jolly old squire fond of good food, wine and women, a typical country squire of this or any other century; Aunt Sarah, the spinster who had always lived at home, somewhat innocent, remembering the birthdays, the triumphs and failures of every member of the family, and only now that she was growing old forgetting to whom they had happened and thinking now and then that Gabriel’s new wife was her sister- in-law, Claire, long dead wife of Sir Matthew; there was Ruth who had been mistress of the house since her mother had died, and naturally enough mildly resented the intruder; there was Luke, a young man absorbed in his own affairs as most young men were. A normal family similar to those which were to be found in many households throughout the country.
I had tried to make myself pleasant and I was sure I was succeeding.
Ruth of course was the most difficult to reassure:
I did want her to know that I had no intention of ousting her from her position. Heaven knew this house was large enough, for us to live our separate lives in. Sir Matthew was master of the house and she was his daughter, who had been mistress of the place since she came of age, had continued to live here after her marriage, and naturally had remained when she became a widow. I wanted her to know that I considered she had more right to be the chat elaine of Kirkland Revels than I had.
She told me of the dinner party she was planning, and I candidly replied that she must go ahead with her plans, for I had come from a very small household and had done no housekeeping, having but a short while before my marriage been at school.
This seemed to please her and I felt happy.
During the first morning Gabriel was with his father;
I guessed there were certain business matters concerning the estate which had to be discussed, particularly as Gabriel had been away from home so long. I assured him that I was well able to take care of myself.
I planned to take Friday for a walk, for I was eager’ to explore the country and in particular to have a look at the Abbey ruins. But on my way downstairs I met Luke. He grinned at me in a friendly way and stooped to have a word with Friday. Friday was delighted to be taken notice of and there was no doubt that he took a fancy to Luke right from the first.
” I like dogs,” Luke told me.
“You have none?”
He shook his head. ” Who’d look after them when I am away? I was often away … at school, you know. Now I’m in the transistory period.
I have left school and shall shortly be going to Oxford.”
” Surely there are plenty of people to look after a dog while you’re away?”
” I don’t see it. If you have a dog it’s your dog and you can’t trust anyone else to look after it. Have you seen the house yet?” he asked.
” Not aH of it.”
” I’ll take you on a conducted tour. You ought to know it. You’ll get lost if you don’t. It’s so easy to take the wrong turning. Shall I show it to you?”
I was anxious to be friends, and I felt it was best to accept his invitation. Moreover, I was eager to see the house, so I decided the walk could wait until the tour was over.
I had no idea of the size of the house. I reckoned there must be at least a hundred rooms. Each of the four parts which made up that rectangle of stone was like a house in itself, and it certainly was easy to lose oneself.
” The story goes,” Luke told me, ” that one of our ancestors married four wives and kept them in separate houses; and for a long time none of them knew of the existence of the other three.”
” It sounds like Bluebeard.”
“Perhaps the original Bluebeard was a Rockwell. There are dark secrets in our history, Catherine. You’ve no idea what a family you’ve married into!” His light eyes regarded me with amusement which was not untinged with cynicism; and I was reminded of Gabriel’s decision not to tell the family that he was going to marry me. Of course they regarded me as a fortune-hunter, for not only would Gabriel inherit this house, but also the means which would enable him to live in such a place, as well as the title which, as the only son of his baronet father, would be his when the old man died.
” I’m beginning to learn,” I told him.
I went through those rooms in a state of bewilderment there were so many, and all had the high windows, the lofty ceilings often decorated with exquisite carving, the panelled walls, the furniture of another age. I saw the great cellars, the kitchens, where I met some of the servants who also seemed to eye me with a certain suspicion; I saw the other three balconies so like that near our own room; I examined the massive stone pillars which supported them, and the faces of gargoyles which seemed to grimace at me from everywhere.
” How fond they seemed to be of these devils and grotesques,” I said.
” They were to scare off intruders,” Luke told me. ” You must admit they’re somewhat scarifying. Keep off,” they seem to be saying. The devils of Kirkland will get you if you don’t look out. “” ” Surely they sometimes wanted to welcome visitors,” I murmured lightly.
” We must have been an inhospitable crowd, sufficient unto ourselves perhaps.”
When we reached the gallery he took me round, explaining who the subjects were. There was the first Sir Luke who had built the place, a fierce-looking gentleman in armour. There was Thomas, Mark, John, several Matthews and another Luke.
” We always have biblical names,” he said. ” It’s a feature of the family. Always Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Peter Simon, anything you can think of … even down to the Angel Gabriel. I often call him Angel, though he doesn’t like it much. I think that was going a bit too far. A nice down-to- earth Mark or John would have been so much better. Now that Sir Luke … he died young. He jumped over the balcony in the west wing.”
I stared at the young man in the picture; they were all so lifelike, those pictures, that the lips seemed to move as I watched.
” And that,” went on Luke, ” Is John who, about a hundred years after, decided he’d die the same way. He jumped over the balcony in the north wing. Strange, isn’t it. Although I think he got the idea from that Luke,” I turned away. This talk made me feel uneasy. I was not sure why.
As I moved towards a woman in a feathered Gainsborough type hat, I heard Luke’s voice at my elbow. ” My great-great great-grandmother.